A key focus of this blog is the history of Jacksons in Ireland. I am specially curious about those who may be related to Sir Thomas Jackson (1841-1915). His life is key to understanding how a dozen or so young men, sons of Irish tenant farmers, shaped the future of international banking in the Far East in the late 1800s. I also use this blog as a place for playful posts: book and restaurant reviews, recipes, and events in my life. WARNING: Note the date of each post. Some may be outdated.

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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Last month, I posted a piece where I invoked Sherlock Holmes and
the curious incident of the dog that didn’t bark. In the case that I was trying to solve, the missing piece was why did the Rev. Richard Jackson (1595-1680) of Kirby
Lonsdale not name a son after himself – especially when he had twenty children,
ten of whom were sons? Surely, there had to be a son named Richard.

Woof. Case solved.
Thanks to crowd sourcing, and the input of others, it turns out that not only was
there a son named Richard, but now – as a result of that earlier post - I also know
the names and christening dates of all of his nineteen siblings. We can credit his first wife, Dorothy Otway,
with doing most of the heavy lifting. Sixteen of the twenty children were hers,
and only one died as a child.

Advancing years may be why there were no more than twenty
children. When Richard’s second wife, Jane Carter, gave birth to Richard’s 20th
child, the aptly named Vigessima (Latin for 20), June was 39 years old. Even
though Rev. Richard would live well into his 80s, he was already 62. In his
first marriage, he had a child virtually every year. In his second marriage,
there was a hitherto unheard of gap of five years between the 18th
and 19th child. Fair enough.

In 1645, the year that Dorothy & Richard’s 16th
child was born, the eldest son, William, was seventeen years old. This was the same
year that Dorothy died, and was also the same year that Oliver Cromwell formed
his New Model Army. This
convergence is significant. Many of the children of Rev. Richard, as well as
many of their relations relocated to post-Cromwellian Ireland after the Civil War.
Further research will likely prove that some members of the extended family settled
in Ireland long before this, quite likely as early as Elizabethan times.

At the time of the birth of Rodger in 1645, the Jackson family
was facing a serious financial crisis. Bear in mind that in the mid-1600s in England,
a succession of rulers had been taking turns seizing power and then getting
whacked down. It was as if the whole country was engaged in a game of Whack-a-Mole. Every
time a ruler was deposed, another one popped up, and the legal and religious lay
of the land underwent a 180 degree shift. Much of the country went from
Catholic to Protestant, Protestant to Catholic, and then back again Those of
the yeoman, clerical and wealthier classes often lost their lands if not their
heads when they were found guilty of being on the losing side.

Rev. Richard had misjudged which side his bread was buttered
on when he backed a £100 loan to a popish
recusant. The man was unable to pay because of all his lands & meanes beinge sequestered.The ricochet effect put Rev. Richard on the
verge of bankruptcy. The Right Honorable Lord Wharton was beseeched to find a:

course
may be taken that Mr. Jackson may have satisfaction, if any be to be had out of
the delinquents estate of lands or woods, otherwise if lawe pceede agaynst Mr. Jackson & compell him to pay it as it
will do, he will be undone, and not able to subsist haveing wife & many
children, 14 children he hath & the 15th (is by this tyme borne for every
houre his wife lookes for it). [NOTE: Rev. Richard’s daughter Maria, who
died in 1642, was not included in this count of 14 children]

This is where having friends in high places helps. Oliver
Cromwell and Lord Wharton were close friends. An indication of their closeness
is in a letter
sent by Oliver Cromwell in 1649 to Wharton, where Cromwell says: If
I know my heart, I love you in truth: and therefore if, from the jealousy of unfeigned
love, I play the fool a little, and say a word or two at guess, I know you will
pardon it. There is much more
to learn about the support of the Jacksons by Lord Wharton, who seems to have
come to their rescue. Clearly, Rev. Jackson dodged a financial bullet, since he
married again within a year, and seemed to have no problem in supporting
another four children.

Jackson Hall, Kirby Lonsdale, now known as The Royal Hotel, a lovingly restored
Georgian town-house hotel providing luxury accommodation and exceptional
hospitality amidst the unspoilt English countryside of the Lake District, the
Yorkshire Dales and the Forest of Bowland. NOTE: I will write about the family connections to this property in a future post - it belonged to the Coleraine Jacksons for generations.

Although Rev. Richard had long sided with the Parliamentarians
not the Royalists, we do know that the beliefs of his father-in-law, Roger
Otway, shifted with the winds of the times. In 1643, he spoke up on the side of
the King and hence against the Parliament, but a year later he was clearly under
the protection of the Roundheads. The hint about where Rev. Richard’s loyalties
lay was that Otway invoked his name in order to demonstrate his own loyalty to
Parliament. Otway’s shift happened just after the Battle of Marston Moor
where the Scottish Covenanters, with Oliver Cromwell acting
as Lieutenant- General, defeated the Royalists in Yorkshire. Rev. Richard seems
to have been a Parliamentarian and supporter of Cromwell long before this.

When Rev. Richard’s wife Dorothy died, a year after the
Battle of Marston Moor, the region was still in a state of political upheaval
and uncertainty. This meant that the family was on their back foot in more ways
than one. Clearly, they were already financially shaky, but now there were a total
of 15 children to feed and house, most if not all of them dependent on their
family. The six youngest were under the age of six.

The eldest son, William, later known as Capt. William
Jackson, had likely already joined the army, and would be rewarded with land
for his services. There is a William Jackson listed in the Irish Cromwellian
Land Grants, but infuriatingly, there is no mention which County or
Counties his lands were in. Even so, I suspect this is our man. The lands that William
leased in Coleraine in 1663 were in the townland of Killowen, part of the lands
granted under the Plantation grants to members of the Clothworkers’ Corporation.
This is a good fit with the profession of his grandfather, William Jackson, a
merchant and a mercer in Kirby Lonsdale, Westmorland.

Ironically, in spite of the Parliamentary affiliations of
Rev. Richard and his sons, many of his descendants would ascend to become not
only well-heeled gentry, but also supporters of the Royalty no less. Unlike their progenitor, many never wavered when it came to keeping a keen eye
to which side their bread was buttered on.

Still, the social status of Rev. Richard makes it even more surprising
that his son William, at the age of 29, was allowed to marry Elizabeth Staples,
daughter of Sir Alexander Staples and Elizabeth Conyngham of Coleraine. To go
from being the military son of an impoverished vicar to the husband of a knight’s
daughter in one generation was not unheard of, but it was rare. Perhaps there
was more to this than meets the eye. Although knighthoods were often no more
than patronage appointments handed out in reward for services to the ruler, it
is also possible that Rev. Richard came from a family that was much better off
than might appear at first glance.

Regardless of whether the Captain William Jackson who leased
lands in Coleraine in the 1660s was born with a silver spoon in his mouth or
not, he did well by himself. Already by 1663, Killowen, the townland that he
leased, had 18 households with 20 hearths. Compared to Oliver Cromwell, who two
years earlier had been exhumed and posthumously executed, young William Jackson
was doing very well indeed. By 1669, he also won the position of wood ranger,
the better to log 200 tons of timber to build a bridge over the River Bann that
was to his advantage. Never being one to
back down from a good fight, he is also on record for having tangled with the town
of Coleraine in 1673 over taxes. Finally, an agreement was reached for a settlement, and it was agreed that he would
not trouble or molest the town court leets
(taxes), nor hinder any of the
Clothworkers’ tenants from answering these leets.

As a result of the
bridge, and the focussed energies of Capt. William, the town of Killowen soon expanded
to 65 households, mostly tenanted by Presbyterian tradesmen. Capt. William also controlled
the Custom House, the Excise Office, end eventually even the Post Office. By
the time he died in 1688 at age 60, his eldest son, the next Captain William
Jackson was old enough to step into his father’s considerably sized boots.

The story of this second Captain William Jackson, as well as
the stories of the other Jacksons related to those who settled in Coleraine in
post-Cromwellian times, will have to await a later post. There is no shortage
of juice. The family was nothing if not colourful.

NOTE: This is the only photo that I can find of Jackson Hall
aka Manor House in Coleraine. It is on the web site of “Lord
Belmont” in Northern Ireland. Perhaps someone reading this may know of another?

CREDITS: There are many people whose fingerprints are all
over the solving of this case, but it is Jan Waugh who deserves to be singled out for special
praise. It was her research which lead me to revisit the earlier versions of
this Jackson family tree, and then to unlink Tomsin Futhergill as a wife of Rev.
Richard. Tomsin had been included as a possibility as Richard’s second wife, after Dorothy and before
Jane. Based on the records to date, this earlier hunch can now be safely
discounted. Tomsin Futhergill must have married another Richard Jackson. This was easily done as there was no
shortage of them in Westmorland in the 1600s.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Years ago, an old friend observed, while we were quaffing a
beer or three, that if you asked most people how many cows were in the field
across the road, they would glance up and say: Three, or twelve – depending
on how many they saw. I, on the other hand, would spend the next month
examining the nature of the grass, the cow pies, the angle of the hoof prints –
in short, the whole nine yards. My answer then would be that there were seven
mature cows, two yearlings and three calves. Half of them had issues with their
bowels, and one had an infected hoof.

To the charge of being a geek, I plead guilty as charged. Last week I uploaded more than 300
pages of notes on deeds and such that I had transcribed from the Deeds
Registry, and other sources. Now that is arcane, even for me. Yet it is amazing
material when you know how to use it.

Occasionally, you get a window into events such as the legal
arrangements made between Thomas and Mary Jackson, and John Halpin - a comb maker, because the Jackson's marriage had come asunder in an time before divorce was an option. I have highlighted
the interesting parts in blue:

1788 Jun 24 ROD 402-191-264706

Btw Thomas JACKSON of Hammond Lane Co & City of Dublin of the 1st
part & Mary JACKSON his wife of 2nd pt and John HALPIN of the
City of Dublin Combmaker and Edward BROOK of said City gent of the 3rd
pt Reciting
that certain Differences & disagreements had arisen and were then
subsistingbetween the said Thomas
JACKSON and Mary JACKSON his wife and that in order to put an end to same they
had mutually agreed to live separate from each other and that the
saidThomas JACKSON by virtue of the
Deed of Settlement in said Deed[?] was
seized and possessed of among other houses the Premises in said Deed party
recitedand herein after mentioned the
said Thomas
JACKSON to provide a separate Maintenance & provision for said Mary JACKSON
during such time as she should live separate from hersaid husband by said deed Did Grant bargain
sell release and confirm unto the said John HALPEN and Edward BROOK in their
actual position then being by virtue of the Bargain & Sale therein
mentioned in trust for the sole use of Mary JACKSON One Amount or Clear Yearly
Rent charge of £30… payable out of… dwelling House Assuage or Tenement…
formerly in possession ofThomas LEWIS
but now in possession of John BUTLER Baker situate lying or being in the corner
or front of Hammond Lane and Pudding otherwise Lincoln Lane in Co 7 City
Dublin… that Thomas
JACKSON during such time as said Mary JACKSON should live separate[?] not under any pretence whatever Call upon
or molest the said Maryin the posson of
any place of abode she might hereafter Occupy or cause her to be disturbed
therein in like Manner that said Mary should not Molest or disturb the said
Thomas JACKSON his children or family or procure it to [leedom] & that in
case the said Thomas JACKSON should at any time thereafter be obliged to pay or
that he should be sued for a Debt which the said Mary should Contract for her
own use & account then it should be lawful for said Thomas JACKSON to
enterunto the said premises and recover
the full amount of said debt and costs& also that the said Thomas JACKSON should permit the said Mary
JACKSON to have receive take away carry & remove all wearing apparel of
what kind soever with the several articles of household Furniture and other
matters mentioned in the schedule of deed Indorsed and to disposeof the same as she think proper….

But, back to the geekdom part of this. A couple of years
ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Reddan from Australia. Four dozen volunteers have been indexing and posting notes of
deeds on his
site for the past several years. One of these researchers, Roz McCutcheon,
has indexed and uploaded more than 20,000 of them herself. I am a mere trifler
in this crowd. As of June 1st, there were 113,623 indexed deeds, but
by the time you read this, the total will definitely be higher.

Sharon & Nick at The Church Restaurant, Dublin, in 2011. Photo credit: Peter McWilliams.PS - Check out the Fish and Chips. Excellent.

The genius of Nick’s index is that you can often find people
who were not only lessees or lessors, but also neighbours, witnesses, or
relations. No other index gets even close. It is impossible to underestimate how much place matters in
Irish history. When James Joyce wrote A Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man the central character wrote down:

Stephen Dedalus

Class of Elements

Congowes Wood College

Sallins

County Kildare

Ireland

Europe

The World

The Universe

For Deeds Registry work, one would need to add:

...

Sallins

Bodenstown

Naas North

County Kildare

Ireland

....

Most original deeds were in the possession of the parties but some have survived in solicitors and private estate
collections. The originals of registered memorials in the
Registry of Deeds have the old seals and signatures. Copies were handwritten in parchment books -known as tombstones on account of their weight - and are available for perusal in the Deeds Registry Office There
is a sensory pleasure in searching through them personally. The weight of the
paper, the smell of it. There are also two indexes to these tombstones:

The NAME INDEX where memorials
are indexed under the name of the lessor (the person who held title to the
property), NOT the lessee. NOTE: There is no index of lessees.

The TOWNLAND INDEX which
is the more challenging of the two. Many of these books are stained, and the
writing can be so cramped that it is a challenge to decode.

Other tips that I have learned over the years are:

Not everyone gets
mentioned in memorials or deeds. Many people held leases that flew beneath
the radar. Many did not have leases.

Unless the person you are
seeking was reasonably wealthy, odds are that they were the lessee, not
the owner, so the likely landlord’s name is the name to start with.

If you have the name of a
wife, check her out. Often marriage agreements are under her father’s or
brother’s names.

Look at the end of the
book. Sometimes entries are posted that did not fit under the letter they
are supposed to be under.

NOTE:You can order colour photocopies from the Registry of Deeds for €20 - either on-line or in person, as long as you have the reference number..

If you cannot get to the Registry Office in Dublin, but have
a reference for a memorial, then try your luck at Nick
Reddan’s site, and keep checking back. New ones are added all the time. His
instructions are pretty clear. One trick I can add is whenever I have a
memorial number, but nothing else, is that I go to the page where he has the index
by memorial, click on the hyperlink that takes me to the page with the
appropriate page-range, and then use the find feature in my browser to hone in on
the specific number I am seeking. It does speed things up a bit.

The deeds
on my site have a different focus in mind than his site. I am collecting notes on
memorial that are likely interconnected with the families that I am
researching. If you find one that looks like a slam dunk for your own research, then a site search of
my web page may turn up something else of interest. The legal intricacies are
of less interest to me than the family information, so, if you do find an entry
on my site that interests you, it is also worth checking on Nick’s site.

About Me

Author And Researcher. I am currently writing a book on the life of Sir Thomas Jackson. He was the son of tenant farmers, born just before the Famine in South Armagh, who was knighted because he not only lead HSBC into the 20th Century, but was also responsible for assisting with the funding of much of the economic development in China & Japan in the late 1800s. My first published book was "Some Become Flowers: Living with Dying at Home".